NMSSI offers five courses for science teachers

CSCE 890: Robotics for Teachers, 2015

The Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes has lots of good news! The 20 percent tuition discount for all in-person NMSSI courses for current Nebraska teachers has been approved by UNL, and we have five courses – two of which are brand-new! – to offer to science teachers this summer.

Registration opens Monday, March 7, for summer courses at UNL. To enroll in UNL graduate courses, follow the four steps outlined on the NMSSI website, http://scimath.unl.edu/nmssi/. This year we are offering 30 math and science courses across the state and online to meet your professional develop-ment needs. Check out our course catalog, which supplies the needed class numbers for either Teach Nebraska registration or MyRED. The NMSSI Fellowship Application will also open the week of March 7 at http://go.unl.edu/scimathapply.

(Note to returning students: It's possible that MyRED has assigned you an enrollment date depending on your current status so please take note of that if you are not able to register right away on Mon-day.)

The five science courses are:

**NEW** BIOS 897 - Ecology and Evolution of Arachnids for K-12 Educators, June 20-24, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Instructor: Eileen Hebets (UNL SBS)
Overview: This course is for middle school and high school teachers interested in learning how arach-nids and their arthropod relatives can be integrated into K-12 classrooms for teaching a breadth of sci-ence material including: organismal structure and function; ecosystem interactions and dynamics; in-heritance and trait variation; and evolution and biodiversity. The course will use inquiry-based learning, hands on science experiments, individual research projects, and group discussions to learn about the anatomy, physiology, behavior, ecology, and evolution of living arachnid groups.

CSCE 890 – Introduction to Robotics for Teachers, June 27-July 1, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Instructor: Don Costello (UNL CSE)
Overview: This course is for middle school and secondary school teachers wishing to gain knowledge and experience in the foundations of the science of Robotics and how to program and field test the robots with the software provided. Each day involves one strategy and teaching objective with lectur-ing and demos of robot programming and challenge assignments in Robot programming to be exer-cised as a component of class work. Enrollment is limited to 15.

GEOS 898 - Methods in Geoscience Field Instruction, June 11-26, fieldwork
Instructor: David Harwood (EAS)
A 16-day, inquiry-based geology field course in which participants will enhance their inquiry skills and experience learning (and camping) in the great outdoors across Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyo-ming. The primary aim of this course is to improve educators' ability to teach inquiry, gain knowledge and understanding of geoscience, and to demonstrate effective teaching methods for 6-12 learning environments. Participants will discover, observe and study a variety of natural phenomena, focusing on Earth processes and geological history. Enrollment is limited to 9.

**NEW** TEAC 924A -- Seminar in Curriculum and Teaching of Science: Enriching Elementary Science Practices – July 11-15, 8 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Instructor: Krista Adams (UNL TLTE)
Overview: This graduate level course will help elementary (K-5) teach-ers enrich science lessons through the “literacy lens” of varied genres of children’s books. Teachers will learn about the fundamental science literacy – the ability to read, write, and speak scientifically – through information presented as both text and pictures. Teachers will learn how to engage students in authentic science practices, comprehension of the text and science content, and recognition of sci-entific uncertainty. The final course product will guide participant teachers through creation and de-velopment of a classroom-ready, instructional unit.

TEAC 924D – Seminar in the Curriculum and Teaching of Secondary Science: Science Inquiry and Prob-lem-Based Learning (PBL) -- July 18-22, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Instructors: Julie Thomas (UNL TLTE) and John Carroll (UNL NRES)
Overview: This graduate level course is primarily designed for high school biology teachers. Teachers will first become familiar with UNL researchers’ efforts to understand complex ecological problems in South Africa (predator community response to human influences and environmental change in the context of fragmented African landscapes). Secondly, teachers will learn problem-based teaching strategies that develop students’ disciplinary knowledge base, inquiry skills, and higher-order thinking skills. What differentiates this course is the unique opportunity for teachers to collaborate with UNL ecologists to create problem-based learning curricula that access real research data and center on real-world environmental dilemmas.

The complete course catalog for the 2016 Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes (NMSSI) is now available on our NMSSI website (http://scimath.unl.edu/nmssi/2016/course-catalog/) and in UN-L's MyRED registration system. For all in-person NMSSI courses, current Nebraska teachers automati-cally qualify for a tuition fellowship from UNL equal to 20 percent of in-state, graduate tuition. Addi-tionally, Nebraska K-12 teachers can apply for supplemental NMSSI Fellowships to further defray tui-tion costs for NMSSI courses (funds are limited). See our NMSSI website for details. We expect the application to open during the week of March 7.